Exclusive: Oakland A's make changes to AFL roster

Melissa Lockard

09/07/2016

The Oakland A's are making a change to their Arizona Fall League roster, replacing Matt Chapman with Max Schrock.

One of the A's top prospects won't be playing in this year's Arizona Fall League after all. The A's are replacing Matt Chapman on the Mesa Solar Sox roster with newly acquired prospect Max Schrock, OaklandClubhouse has learned.

Last season, Chapman was limited to 80 games thanks to knee and wrist injuries. The wrist injury cost Chapman the final five weeks of the year. The A's 2014 first-round pick has been healthy this season, playing a career-high 135 regular season games. He is also scheduled to play in the post-season for the Nashville Sounds.

The A's initially slated Chapman to play in this year's Arizona Fall League, but after he played in so many games and racked up more than 500 at-bats, the A's have elected to remove him from the AFL roster to protect his wrist and give him a chance at a full off-season to get ready for 2017 spring training, according to A's Director of Player Development Keith Lieppman. Chapman led all A's minor leaguers in homeruns this season with 36 and he won the Texas League's Player of the Year award.

Chapman will be replaced on the Mesa Solar Sox roster by prospect Schrock, who was acquired by Oakland in a deal with the Washington Nationals in late August. Schrock, who is currently on the Midland RockHounds' roster, has played 129 games this season between the Nationals' and A's organizations. He hit .331/.373/.449 with 22 stolen bases and nine homeruns in his first full professional season. The 2015 13th-round pick out of South Carolina is expected to be an important part of the RockHounds' post-season line-up after he hit .391 in six late-season games for Midland.